


Down This Road

by tommygirl



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Collection: Fandom Stocking 2015, Ficlet, Gen, Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 12:13:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5665681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tommygirl/pseuds/tommygirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set near the end of episode 6.6, Always Accountable, Daryl can hear the voices of some people that are long gone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down This Road

**Author's Note:**

  * For [natlyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/natlyn/gifts).



> Happy Holidays! Just a small thing where I tried to get inside Daryl's head for a few minutes. Hope you enjoy!

As Daryl drove the truck down the highway to find Sasha and Abraham, he could hear Merle's voice clearly in his head and he was pissed off. Hollering at Daryl for getting soft and being too damn trusting.  Cussing Daryl out for letting that guy and girl get the drop on him not once, but twice... _where the hell's your head at, boy?  Sheriff Goody Two-Shoes has made you soft._ Daryl was pretty pissed off at himself too.  At the moment, he was wondering if maybe Rick and Carol weren't right to be so on edge, even in Alexandria. Their group knew better than anyone exactly what was out there, and the problem wasn't ever the walkers.

But as quickly as Merle's voice flooded his head, he would remember conversations with Beth. Out of everything in this whole damn mess, the one thing Daryl truly regretted, even more than not saving Merle, was not getting to Beth in time. He should have kept a better eye on her. He should never have let anyone get their hands on her. Even in the end, Beth was trying to help other people. She died trying to keep Noah from being stuck in that hospital.  Her sweet voice drowned out Merle - _you saw 'em, Daryl.  They were scared.  They just wanted to get away.  It wasn't about you.  You did the right thing._

The more Daryl thought about, he wasn't sure what to make of anything. His first priority would remain his group, the people he cared about, but he still wanted to believe that something could be salvaged from this damn mess. The world had gone to shit and nothing ever came easy, but there were still good people out there. And Hershel had always told him that people weren't meant to go it alone, usually in a good-natured chide when Daryl returned to the prison after being out on the road too long.

Daryl never heard Hershel's voice, not the way he knew Rick did, but somehow he still knew what the man would think of things. Daryl knew that Hershel would expect Daryl and Glen to wrangle Rick back in when he skirted too close to the edge. That we couldn't give up on people, on Alexandria, and what it meant.

The key was finding a happy medium. Never be too damn trusting, not like he had been back in those damn woods, but not like the Governor or Terminus or any of those other damn people they had encountered.  Alexandria was as good a place as any to give it a go.

"Took you damn long enough," Abraham said, appearing from the door of storefront, waving at Daryl in the truck as he approached. Sasha came out right behind him and smiled at him.

At least something had gone right. His people were still okay.


End file.
